| Local News: Wednesday, October 30, 2002 Southwest Snohomish County
Drug-clinic plan worries tenants By Lynn Thompson
Times Snohomish County bureau LYNNWOOD Snohomish County's first methadone-treatment clinic will likely locate in a Lynnwood professional building, despite the objections of neighboring doctors and dentists and a lack of notice to the surrounding community. A California company is negotiating for space in the Alderwood Professional Building at 18631 Alderwood Mall Parkway, across from the east end of the mall. The offices are adjacent to Toys R Us and about half a mile from Lynnwood High School. Lynnwood city officials say there is little they can do. A state law adopted last year makes it easier to locate facilities, such as methadone clinics, that often meet resistance from neighbors. Cities must accept such "essential public services" if they are compatible with existing zoning and the state establishes need, said Jim Cutts, Lynnwood community-development director. The methadone
clinic is a medical facility and can legally be located in the professional building, Cutts said. And some say the clinic, which would treat heroin addicts with a synthetic opiate that doesn't cure them but relieves withdrawal symptoms, is long overdue. "There are so many people who ask for help and there's no place to send them except outside the county," said Cheri Speelman, program director of AIDS Outreach and the Snohomish County Clean Needle Exchange. "The need is huge." Many of the medical professionals who work in the building, however, say they're concerned that the clinic, which plans to treat 200 to 250 heroin addicts a day, will hurt their business, bring crime to the neighborhood and place children at risk. "There are good and bad locations for this type of facility," said Don Schimmel, a clinical psychologist whose practice has included drug and alcohol assessment. "Why would you want to put it next to a Toys R Us?" California-based CRC Health, which operates 25 methadone-treatment clinics in six states, plans to open the Lynnwood facility by the end of November, division president Phil Herschman said. In hearings last summer in Everett, the state Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse determined the county, which had fought the placement of methadone clinics, needed three to treat its estimated 3,000 heroin addicts. "Our hands are tied," Cutts said. CRC originally planned to locate the first clinic in a commercial area on 164th Street Southwest, about a quarter-mile east of Interstate 5 near Mill Creek. But Snohomish County Councilman Dave Gossett said he objected to the location because it was too close to residential neighborhoods. CRC's Herschman said Gossett's concerns, coupled with the prospective landlord's desire to lease more space than needed for the clinic, redirected the company's search. Doctors in the Alderwood Professional Building said they learned only accidentally of plans to locate the methadone
clinic in the ground-floor space formerly occupied by a Virginia Mason medical clinic. The law does not require public notice to tenants or neighbors of proposed treatment facilities. "I'm aghast," said Dr. Steven Baker, whose dental office is on the second floor of the building. "We have kids coming in here all the time. We're just picturing them having to run a gantlet to get to their doctor." Some tenants met last week with Cutts and Lynnwood Police Chief Steve Jensen. They are also planning to meet with a lawyer and draw up a letter expressing their concerns to the City Council, neighboring businesses and the building's property-management company, said Don Floyd, a podiatrist who has practiced in the building since 1984. "We're being told this is a done deal," he said. "We don't think this is a proper professional thing to go in this building." Barry O'Connor, manager of Alderwood Mall, said the only objections he has heard about the facility have come from the doctors. But he echoed their concerns that there have been no public notice or meetings to inform nearby businesses. "It would be beneficial to educate the community about what this business is about and how they conduct their operations," he said. Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or [email protected]. | 
